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C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 001064
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
NOFORN
FOR PRM A/S SAUERBREY
ALSO FOR G, NEA, PRM, CA AND S/I
CAIRO FOR DOETSCH
FROM REGIONAL REFCOORD AMMAN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2017
TAGS: PREGPGOVPHUMSYIZJO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR PRM A/S SAUERBREY'S MARCH 13-16
VISIT
REF: A. PRM/ANE DAR OF 03/06/07
¶B. REIMER-GREENE EMAIL OF 03/02/07
¶C. AMMAN 786
¶D. AMMAN 703
¶E. AMMAN 644
Classified By: CDA Daniel Rubinstein for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Embassy Amman welcomes your visit, and looks
forward to building upon your discussions with key Jordanian
officials and Ambassador Hale in recent days in Washington to
advance our dialogue with the GOJ on the needs of Iraqis in
Jordan, as well as the other refugee issues of mutual
interest such as UNRWA programs for Palestinians. The
government's anxiety about the Iraqi refugee issue remains
high, and its impasse with UNHCR over the latter's decision
to recognize Iraqis from south and central Iraq as prima
facie refugees, which prompted UNHCR to suspend registration
operations last week, remained unresolved at OOB March 8,
although post understands that UNHCR official Radhounne
Nouicer will be in Amman on March 12 to address this issue
with the GOJ. Other issues are also changing the protection
landscape; they are largely related to the confusion over the
GOJ's willingness to recognize identification documents
issued by the UN, and controversy over Iraqi passports. FM
Khatib has offered to meet with UNHCR's team, and we can
report positive movement on our assistance objectives. FAFO
expects to sign an agreement with the GOJ March 12, and to
start work on the first serious effort to survey the needs of
Iraqis in Jordan that same day. This is a critical step in
our efforts to secure Jordan's active participation in the
April Geneva conference and to open "operational space" for
our IO and NGO partners. END SUMMARY.
UPDATE ON PROTECTION ISSUES
---------------------------
¶2. (C) PRESERVING FIRST ASYLUM: Post has been working to
clarify a number of confusing reports that have emerged in
recent weeks that suggest entry requirements may be evolving.
The Director of the Minister of Interior's Office, Nasser
Ramadeen, refuted to us local media reports that claim Jordan
is on the verge of changing its visa-on-entry scheme and will
soon require Iraqis to apply for Jordanian visas in Baghdad
(as Egypt and Lebanon already require). Our MOI contacts
uniformly confirm that the GOJ has followed our lead on
passports, and no longer accepts Iraq's old &S series8 due
to the same security concerns which led the USG to adopt this
measure.
¶3. (C) According to Embassy Amman's Iraq Support Unit,
immigration officials at Jordan's airports are starting to
enforce the new passport rules. However, our contacts at
Jordan's one official land crossing with Iraq (Karama-Trebil)
have told us that they are still accepting the "S" series
passports, and are prepared to continue to do so until June
¶1. As previously reported in ref E, Jordan is not permitting
entry to most unknown Iraqis between the ages of 18 and 35.
Figures on entry and exit are becoming increasingly difficult
to secure; the most current available are those reported in
ref E. The understanding reached by the Ambassador with the
GOJ last month to secure the entry to Jordan of 100 direct
referrals from Embassy Baghdad to the US Refugee Admissions
Program (see ref C) continues to function well.
¶4. (C) IDENTIFICATION: In addition to no longer being able to
enter Jordan on an "S" series passport, consistent with the
U.S.'s own procedures, Iraqis now require "G" series
passports to regularize their status if they are already in
Jordan. NOTE: According to UNHCR Jordan, the Interior
Minister orally informed visiting UNHCR HC Guterres in
February that approximately 150,000 of the Iraqis in Jordan
were legal residents. END NOTE. While the Iraqi Embassy in
Jordan has said that it will take applications for the new G
series passports, there are also reports that it may be
reneging on this promise. As in Syria, PRM's NGO partners
report that a black market has emerged around this gap;
couriers are now reportedly charging $2,000 to travel to
Baghdad to file an individual passport application. We
understand that Jordan's MOI plans to engage the Iraqis on
this issue this week.
¶5. (C) DEVELOPMENTS ON UNHCR REGISTRATION: Over the last
week, it has also become more difficult to determine whether
identification documents issued by UNHCR are recognized forms
of protection. The dispute over UNHCR's new registration
practices and attestation letters (refs A-B) remains
unresolved as of COB March 7, and UNHCR's decision to suspend
registration also remains in effect, pending negotiations
with the GOJ. We understand from UNHCR Jordan that Foreign
Minister Al Khatib has offered UNHCR MENA Director Radhounne
Nouicer a meeting the week of March 11. In the meantime,
UNHCR's Jordan office is seeking GOJ permission to resume
issuing letters using its pre-February 2007 text which
identifies the bearer only as an asylum seeker -- as opposed
to a refugee in its current attestation letter -- and which
have a validity of six months in line with the UNHCR-Jordan
MOU. According to UNHCR's senior protection officer, the
Iraqi community is unaware of this dispute, and demand for UN
identification, which started to rise steadily in 2005,
remains high. UNHCR Jordan reports that most Iraqis who
approach their offices have overstayed their permission to
remain in Jordan, and are seeking identification that they
believe will legalize their status. Prior to 2005, Jordan
upheld a 2003 MOU that UNHCR negotiated in advance of the war
that granted blanket "temporary protection" status to all
Iraqis in country. END NOTE.
¶6. (C) ALLEGED RISE IN DEPORTATIONS AND DETENTIONS: UNHCR
Jordan is also ramping up its efforts to investigate reports
of detentions and deportations. It is concerned that senior
MOI and MFA officials who convoked UNHCR Representative Breen
on March 1 suggested in that meeting that the GOJ might begin
treating the new attestation letters that UNHCR has issued to
Iraqis in Jordan since February 6 as "null and void."
Approximately 2,000 Iraqis in Jordan hold these disputed
letters. Anna-Marie Deutschlander, UNHCR's Senior Protection
Officer in Jordan, confirms two new cases of Iraqis holding
the new attestation letters who have been deported from
Jordan: one individual contacted UNHCR,s hotline from the
Jordan-Iraq "no man's land" on March 3. The second
individual was deported from Queen Alia on March 5. UNHCR
has requested information from the GOJ on these two cases but
has not yet received a response. This brings to five the
total number of cases in which Iraqis holding UNHCR
documentation were deported before UNHCR could confirm their
refugee status in Jordan in 2007.
¶7. (C) Prior to this dispute, UNHCR's Jordan office had
already alerted its headquarters in Geneva to what it
considers to be a spike in detentions of Iraqis in Jordan.
Although the GOJ has sometimes informed UNHCR Amman when it
detained Iraqis bearing UNHCR documents, the GOJ is under no
obligation to do so. Deutschlander told refcoord March 5
that UNHCR's most recent internal detention report confirmed
70 Iraqis registered with UNHCR had been detained from
February 17 to March 1, out of a population of anywhere
between 500,000 and 1 million. This is up from an average
UNHCR detention investigation caseload of 20 cases per month
over the previous 12 months. NOTE: The Jordanian legal aid
NGO MIZAN plans to release a report on detention of Iraqi
refugees in Jordan in 2006 within the next seven days. END
NOTE. While UNHCR Amman has hired additional eligibility
officers to conduct detention investigations on a full time
basis to respond to this reported increase, its response time
is constrained by the terms of UNHCR's bilateral MOU with the
GOJ. Unlike ICRC, UNHCR can only access individual detainees
after receiving written permission from MOI. UNHCR reports
that MOI is taking four to five days to respond to their
requests; prior to February, MOI response usually came within
48 hours. UNHCR thinks this is a simple caseload issue, and
not a deliberate effort to impede access.
¶8. (C) The unintended consequence, however, is that UNHCR
protection officers have discovered in a number of cases that
Iraqis they have sought to interview have been moved to new
facilities by the time access requests are granted. In
addition, senior UNHCR staff in Jordan are watching what they
believe may be a new pattern of detention. In 2006, the
majority of Iraqis whose detention was investigated by UNHCR,
were found by UNHCR to have been arrested by local police on
work or immigration violations. In the last two weeks, UNHCR
has encountered several cases of Iraqis held by the General
Intelligence Directorate. UNHCR reports that Iraqis held by
GID are detained under an "administrative hold" category. As
such, the GOJ is not obliged to inform UNHCR of the reasons
for their detention. That said, UNHCR has successfully
conducted interviews with two Iraqis detained by GID; those
interviewed were Shi'a who believe they were detained for
proselytizing. Deutchlander reports that MOI's Refugee Unit
recently explained to her that the GOJ is detaining Iraqis
increasingly on security grounds; her interlocutors
reportedly told her the GOJ is concerned about forged
passports, and are particularly worried by reports that a
large number of "S" series Iraqi passports were issued to
Iranian agents (ref C).
ASSISTANCE: CLOSING THE PERCEPTION GAP KEY TO OPENING
OPERATIONAL SPACE
---------------------------------------------
¶9. (C) The reports that some refugee advocacy groups, NGOs
working in Jordan, and the western media are starting to
produce on the plight of vulnerable Iraqis in Jordan paint a
picture that diverges widely from the perception of the GOJ,
which views Jordan as a poor country, destabilized in the
past by refugee flows, that has extended itself considerably
for Iraqis (refs C-D). As reported in refs A-E, UNHCR has
been unsuccessful to date in moving its discussions with the
GOJ beyond its protection mandate towards a discussion on the
role international assistance could play. Some senior UN
officials based in Amman, including UN Deputy SRSG for Iraq
Jean-Marie Fakhouri (whose humanitarian mandate the UN
recently expanded to include neighboring states), are likely
to tell you that the GOJ is actively working with the GOI to
secure "safe havens" inside Iraq to preclude the need for
more population movements to Jordan. As we reported on
February 14 (ref B), the GOJ has assured Post that it will
allow Iraqis to access essential services as national
resources permit, and we are seeking meetings with the
Ministers of Education and Health during your visit to pursue
that opening.
¶10. (C) PROSPECTS JORDAN WILL JOIN THE APRIL CONFERENCE: A
key question is whether Jordan will ask for those resources
in Geneva in April. Further to ref A, UNHCR Jordan reports
that senior officials from the MFA International Organization
Department and the Ministry of Health have both declined to
respond to UNHCR's request for an estimate of the impact
Iraqis are having on the GOJ, or specific sectoral proposals,
until basic differences over registration are resolved.
Importantly, however, FAFO's Middle East Coordinator Age
Tiltnes told refcoord March 7 that he expects to sign a
formal agreement with the GOJ on March 12 that will enable
FAFO and its Jordanian partner (the GOJ Bureau of Statistics)
to commence work the week of your visit. Separately,
Norway's Ambassador to Jordan told refcoord March 6 that her
government has responded positively to Jordan's request for
funding for this survey. NOTE: Tiltnes reports that
FAFO-SARG negotiations to conduct a similar household survey
are still ongoing. END NOTE.
¶11. (C) SOME JORDANIANS RAISING CREDIBILITY OF GOJ STUDY:
Some Jordanians are calling for the GOJ to take additional
steps to ensure the FAFO mission succeeds. Jordanian Red
Crescent Society President Dr. Al Hadid told visiting PRM/ANE
Director Albright February 22 (see septel for full trip
report) that he is concerned that Iraqis will fear that
cooperation with FAFO will result in their deportation, and
is urging the GOJ to issue a "public amnesty." Jordanian
editorialist Fahd Al Khaytan issued a public call for the GOJ
to stop deporting Iraqis who do not pose a security risk, and
"exempt Iraqis who have violated the terms and conditions of
their residency from paying fines before the Norwegian
organization starts its work" on March 6.
¶12. (C) LIMITED INFORMATION ON VULNERABILITY: The FAFO study
getting underway is the first serious assessment of the
conditions Iraqis are facing in Jordan. Little accurate
information on their economic and social conditions ) and
the extent of poverty, child labor and forced prostitution,
if any - among Iraqis in Jordan is currently available.
Rapid assessments carried out by NGOs who are actively
supporting Iraqis in Jordan confirm these problems are
present, but most of the survey work is dated, and mapping
work is too limited to credibly estimate the size of the
population that is extremely vulnerable. In the study that
CARE International carried out for UNHCR in late 2003, from a
random sample of 3200 Iraqi respondents, 45% were found to
include unaccompanied minor status, female headed-households,
unaccompanied elderly, mentally disabled and individuals
having a medical or psychological condition needing
intervention. Most NGOs, including PRM's current assistance
partner for vulnerable Iraqis in the region, ICMC, report
that refugees' economic status is changing: over time poorer
groups are arriving and those in country are increasingly
relying on remittances from the diaspora as undocumented
labor carries a risk of deportation.
¶13. (C) ACCESS AND NEED FOR NGO ADVOCACY: Data on the numbers
of Iraqis who are accessing GOJ services is also limited.
The best information currently available emerged from UNHCR
HC Guterres' visit to Jordan in February. According to UNHCR
Jordan, an official at the Ministry of Education orally
informed Guterres that there were 40,000 foreign students in
Jordanian schools in 2006, of which 12,000 are Iraqis. Of
that number, 9,000 are in private schools. However, due to
continuous amendments to its admissions policies, it appears
that many of the 3,000 Iraqis who were enrolled in public
schools are now being asked to leave, according to Iraqis
refcoord interviewed, caseworkers with PRM's ICMC "EVI"
project, and UNHCR staff in Jordan. Many Iraqis who were
successful in enrolling their children in public schools at
the start of year promised to present evidence of legal
residency; several months into the school year they are being
forced to withdraw their children, according to caseworkers
with our ICMC/Caritas Jordan EVI project and Save the
Children USA. Given the GOJ's very real resource constraints
and overcrowding in public schools, distance learning via
satellite broadcast, combined with standardized testing that
will be recognized, may be faster short term options.
¶14. (C) NGOs operating in Jordan my address some of the
health needs of vulnerable displaced Iraqis, but lack the
capacity to educate those Iraqi children who are currently
not attending school in Jordan. Numerous NGOs are conducting
rapid assessments in Jordan to respond to PRM's request for
proposals. However, many are not registered in Jordan and
could require advocacy with the GOJ. It may be feasible to
encourage GOJ streamlining of its registration processes with
the Ministry of Trade and Industry, or seek permission to
allow NGOs to operate under the offices of a Jordanian group
like the Hashemite Charitable Organization, which continues
to manage UNHCR's one remaining border camp.
UNHCR RESETTLEMENT WORK PROCEEDING NORMALLY
-------------------------------------------
¶15. (C) While UNHCR registration activities are suspended,
the agency's resettlement work is proceeding normally,
according to UNHCR Jordan's representative. UNHCR is using
the time it would normally devote to registering Iraqis to
conduct in-depth training for the 18 new registration staff
UNHCR has hired in Jordan. UNHCR reports that crowd reaction
to the suspension has been muted, due largely to UNHCR's
decision to blame the suspension on technical problems
associated with UNHCR's computers. UNHCR has made efforts to
call all Iraqis who had scheduled registration appointments
to assure them that they would be given priority when
operations were resumed. UNHCR believes that it can make up
the 300 appointments it has been unable to conduct this week
comparatively quickly now that registration staff are fully
trained. Positive results from the recent DHS circuit ride,
particularly news that the U.S. might accept Palestinians
from Iraq who were admitted to Jordan in 2003 to USRAP, will
be received positively and may help to defuse UNHCR-GOJ
tensions.
Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/
RUBINSTEIN